Each Ozone (O3) molecule consists of three oxygen atoms. Ozone is a pale blue gas at standard temperature and pressure, with an odor detectable at concentrations between 0.0076 and 0.036 parts per million (ppm). Depending on geographic location, altitude and season, natural ozone concentrations range typically from 0.01 to 0.05 ppm. Ozone is considered an air pollutant at ground-level. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration prohibits devices that result in more than 0.050 ppm of ozone in occupied enclosed spaces.
Ozone is unstable at high concentrations and will convert to ordinary diatomic oxygen (O2). As a result ozone has a short life span and cannot be stored and transported, and consequently it must be produced on site. Ozone generators were developed at least as early as 1857, and ozone has been used in a variety of industries as an oxidizer and sterilizer. For example, ozone has been found to have many industrial and consumer applications, such as cleaning indoor air and purifying water. Ozone has also been used to effectively disinfect drinking water, deodorize air and objects, kill bacteria on food and other surface areas, sanitize swimming pool and spa, clean air in industrial plants, manufacture chemical compounds, treat industrial waste, as well as several other industrial and consumer applications, including pest control. The required concentration of ozone to oxidize and sterilize depends on the use of the ozone and the desired results.
A number of machines that produce ozone for residential use have been developed. For example, U.S. Patent Application No. 2006/0263276 A1, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses an ozone generator for generating ozone and using that ozone to clean indoor air, purify water and kill mold, spores and other organisms on surface areas in unoccupied spaces. The first embodiment of this ozone generator has a rectangular shaped housing with wheels, a hinged lid, an extendable handle, and a plurality of openings, including inlets and outlets for air and ozone. This generator further has a remote control unit that is connected to the generator by a cable connection, which allows the user to turn the generator on and off from a remote location. The '276 application further discloses that the ozone generator includes a rectangular housing with a plurality of openings to allow the flow of oxygen into the generator and flow of ozone out of the generator. The housing also includes a lamp housing holding ultraviolet (UV) lamps, as well as a blower. This ozone generator has several practical limitations. For example, air enters the ozone generator and is immediately placed in direct contact with the UV lamps rather than below the UV lamps, which has the disadvantage of possibly causing overheating of the system due to poor air circulation. Also, the '276 application discloses that ozone exits the ozone generator prior to reaching the top UV lamp of fully circulating within the lamp housing. Thus, when using the ozone generator disclosed in the '276 application, the air does not fully circulate about each UV lamp prior to exiting the lamp housing and ozone generator, which prevents optimal ozone conversion. In addition, the '276 application is also deficient in providing an optimal outlet and inlet arrangement, further preventing more efficient conversion of O2 to O3. The ‘ozone generator within the '276 application is deficient in providing optimal temperature constraints to more effectively produce the necessary O3 concentration levels for many ozone generator applications to be commercially feasible, or for which unnecessarily require many more ozone generators due to the deficient performance of each ozone generator. Thus, there is a continuing need for a more effective ozone generator. The present invention is provided to solve these and other problems.